Fiery Chili Lime Rice
Budget Meals, Rice, Sides, Vegetarian — By Jessie on April 2, 2009 at 9:03 pm
I’ve said it before: I love hot food. This rice is a fabulously spicy side that’s packed with flavor. Turn it into a more substantial meal by tossing in some sauteed shrimp or leftover roast chicken or pork.
This rice gets a triple kick of heat from cayenne, chipotle, and Aleppo chili flakes—and a potent dose of bright flavor from fresh lime juice, chopped cilantro, and fresh garlic added to finish the dish.
Fiery Chili Lime Rice: A note on chilis and raw garlic
If hot food’s not your thing, adjust the amount of chili to make it as hot—or not—as you like. You could also substitute a milder chili, like ancho, for some or all of the cayenne.
This dish also has a lot of in-your-face garlic. To cut that back, toss the fresh garlic in with the rice when you add the other spices. When you add it in at the end, the garlic cooks a little bit in the hot rice, but is really still very pungent.
Fiery Chili Lime Rice: A note on ingredients
I make this with basmati rice, which has a really nice, nutty flavor. It would also be really good with jasmine rice, which is more fragrant and slightly flowery.
I also use ground celery seed instead of celery salt (better control over the flavor and amount of salt in the dish). If you can’t find ground celery seed in your grocery store, Penzey’s sells a 4-ounce bag for just under $3. They also sell Aleppo chili flakes.
Fiery Chili Lime Rice
2 cups basmati rice
4 cups water
1 tsp. ground chipotle
1 tsp. ground cayenne
1/2 tsp. ground celery seed (if you use celery salt, omit the kosher salt below)
kosher salt to taste
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 clove fresh garlic, mashed
1 lime, cut in half
Aleppo chili flakes, for garnish
Serves 4-6 generously as a side
Fiery Chili Lime Rice: Bring the rice to a boil
Put the rice in a medium-sized saucepan. Use one that has a tightly fitted lid.
Add the water to the pot. Toss in the ground chipotle, cayenne, celery seed, and kosher salt (to taste).
Give it a stir to combine. Set the pot on the stove over high heat. You want it to come up to a boil.
Fiery Chili Lime Rice: Prep the cilantro and garlic
While you’re waiting, chop up the cilantro and mash the garlic.
Set them aside until the rice is cooked.
Fiery Chili Lime Rice: Cover and simmer the rice
When the pot comes up to a boil, drop the heat to low and cover the pot tightly.
Keep an eye on it for a minute or two. If your heat is too high, it may boil over.
Simmer covered, like this, until you can’t see any liquid and the surface of the rice is dotted with air holes. When you see that, turn the heat off and cover your pot back up for about 10 minutes to let the rice finish cooking.
After about 10 minutes, uncover the pot. Fluff the rice up with a fork.
Give it a taste. It should be completely cooked through.
Fiery Chili Lime Rice: Season the cooked rice
When your rice is cooked, toss in the cilantro and garlic. Squeeze both halves of the lime over the pot.
Stir to combine well with a fork or wooden spoon. Give it one final taste and toss in a little salt if you think it needs it.
Serve garnished with a sprinkle of Aleppo chili flakes.
Enjoy!
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Tags: basmati, chili, cilantro, garlic, lime, rice
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19 Comments
This looks and sounds great! I will give it try one of these days and let you know how it goes over:)
Thanks, Bunny. I hope you guys like it!
+Jessie
Jessie, thanks, this is right up my alley. I haven’t yet dabbled with chipotle and lime combo. I like pureed chipotles to work magic on chicken noodle soup. I do a lazy daisy skimmer variation of your dish with leftover Jasmine rice. My laze version couldn’t approach your dish in end flavor, but for a quick bite, it has filled the bill. It’s a fav late night snack. Leftover plain rice is so adaptable for fast dishes. I scoop however much I want into a glass bowl and start adding whatever may be in fridge, pantry, or spice rack, according to my taste buds of the moment! Last night, I had a small amount of thin cheesy sauce saved after draining it off some noodles to keep them from sogging. I added the dab of sauce, some good squeezes of lime juice, onion powder (not peeling onions at 1 AM), and fresh cilantro. Then, what the hey, finely minced about 1/4 of a small wilting orange habanero, too. Winner in taste. Then the hab kept me up all night with delayed serious heat. Sometimes I go sweet, adding some sugar and, yep, lime juice — you’re making me realize I could add chiles or chile powder to the sweet too. No more hab though. That wasn’t my idea of fun no matter how good it was going down. Okay, first things first. I want to try your dish. It sounds yummy and is full of ingredients I love. Thanks again for sharing.
Thanks for stopping by, VB. Let me know what you think!
+Jessie
Spice = yum. Garlic = yummer. Lime, cilantro… all my favorite things!!!! This rice look so tasty. I especially like the tiny red specks on the rice after it’s cooked… beautiful, and tasty
.
Wheee! Thanks, Christina!
This is one of my favorites. Especially when I have a cold. It’s easy to make and so spicy that it usually gets me breathing again…
+Jessie
ohhhh yeah babyee! Looks wonderful
Thanks, Jo, honey.
+Jessie
I love all things spicy too. This looks like a perfect rice dish!
All of my favorite spices in one dish! I love rice since you can pretty much do whatever you want with it
This rice sounds excellent with spicy and refreshing flavors – love the chipotle and the lime here!
This sounds like something I would totally go for! I sounds delicious
It would be good with shrimp wouldn’t it? Yum! I love aleppo chili flakes and my addiction to chipotle is legendary!
We love rice, we love lime, and we REALLY love spicy hot (we’re Texas natives, after all)!
How can your recipe NOT be a winner?
But, just to be certain, I will be trying it next week.
Thanks for another wonderful idea, for great photos, and for one of the BEST food blogs on the net.
Have a great weekend.
Made it twice now, once with brown basmati rice (cooked longer of course) and once with white basmati rice. Both ways, both kinds of rice came out clumpy. What did i do wrong?
Fantastic recipe! Great combo of flavours!!
Hi there
I just came across your site looking for a vegan recipe for the chipotle lime rice. This is actually better! I just got done making it now and my mom and I both love it. I book marked your blog and I cant wait to see what other delicious this you’ve made!
Michal
Oh fantastic! Thanks so much for stopping by to let me know.
I don’t do a ton of vegan cooking, but let me know if there’s something in particular you’re trying to figure out and I’ll see if I can help you out.
Cheers!
+Jessie